The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation banning imports from China's Xinjiang region over fears of forced labor, part of Washington's ongoing opposition to Beijing's treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority, Reuters reported.
The measure was passed by unanimous vote after lawmakers agreed on a compromise that eliminated differences between bills introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill last week, but the measure failed to pass in the Senate. But the Senate is expected to adopt the compromise version as early as Wednesday, sending it to the White House, where President Joe Biden has already expressed readiness to sign the document and turn it into a current law.
"The administration will work closely with Congress to implement this bill to ensure that global supply chains are free from forced labor ...," said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate have been arguing over Uighur legislation for months.
The compromise retains a provision that creates a "rebuttable presumption that all goods from Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has set up a network of Uighur detention camps and other Muslim groups, have been made by forced labor to ban such imports."
China denies abuses in Xinjiang, which supplies much of the world's solar panel materials, but the US government and many human rights groups say Beijing is committing genocide there.
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